Busselton Predictions

Posted on December 3, 2009 by lord_lordy

Busso09PreToday I’ve one my final sessions and the only thing left between me and the race now is rest. I got up and did a 30 minute swim with Jo, Russ and Martyn. We swam to the KM marker but Martyn and I agreed if thats a KM then we’re on fire as we cruised out there in 12:30. The water was lovely and calm. I spent the morning, following coffee and a 500g steak and eggs breakfast, preparing my bike.

 

I then took it for a 20 minute spin to check it was all AOK. I did a 20 minute run at a good tempo and that is that.

Busso09Pre-1

Parade and carbo party tonight then tomorrow racking and emptying the 12 gels above in to a water bottle. Carrying my gels in a bottle on the bike worked well in Kona but unfortunately here I’ve not managed to find bottles of gel so  I’ll have the lovely task of squeezing all those gels out.

My plan is to rest and keep my feet up as much as possible tomorrow hence getting my final pre race blog out of the way.

I’m  a little nervous for this race but not as bad as I’ve been the past few races. I don’t feel under too much pressure as it’s unlikely I’ll get a PB and all I’m really looking for is to run solidly ideally for the whole race. The usual stuff is getting me a little nervous – the swim start and getting in a good position followed by the hard first 15 minutes to get established in a front pack. I’m getting better at dealing with this. Once on the bike I feel it’s my own race, without real hopes of the podium I can be insouciant about any packs that go by. I’m aiming to keep calm by trying to make myself believe it’s a training day… of course once out there it will be anything but.

So lets set out what I think I can achieve on Saturday. It’s nice and symmetric – 55 min swim, 4:55 bike and finish off with a 3:55 run which including transitions should get me in under 10 hours.

Now for a 90 minute nap before the parade…

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Resting Up

Posted on December 1, 2009 by lord_lordy

RestingUpI am now in rest mode. Yesterday I did a solid 30 minute run. Today I swam round the jetty and have done a 50 minute ride. Tomorrow nothing. The swim was pretty tough as it was ROUGH. At the far point it felt quite scary to be honest. I bobbed around waiting for Russell and when he arrived said “This is an adventure”. The look on his face didn’t disagree. This evening we’re heading to the pool for a small fun gala against some locals !

hourskona-busso.jpgMy prep since Kona has not gone as I’d hoped but for the past couple of weeks it’s got back on track. The hours have not been too bad. My attempt to get back into decent training 3 to 4 weeks after Kona didn’t go well due to illness, even so it wasn’t too bad. Running bizarrely went well – I’ve only been doing two runs a week so that 2.5 hours in week 4 included a 1h40 run. Swimming wasn’t near the volume I’d hoped largely due to coaching the Tri Club on wednesday nights removing 1.5 hours of swimming in each of the first four weeks. Once in Busselton I’ve managed to hit the training hard. Two solid weeks and minimum 8 hours sleep each night together with lots of just hanging out doing nothing have done me the world of good.

Here is my TSB chart (Apols if these aren’t standard training peaks colours):

RestingUp-1

Blue – chronic training load
Red – acute training load
Yellow – training stress balance.

Pretty clear my fitness is massively off my Kona levels. Not surprising given I probably had the best 3-4 months training leading up to Kona. TSB is currently zero and with more or less just rest left between me and the race it will become positive. Hopefully I’ll be pretty fresh.

So the numbers don’t look great but how do I feel. In the pool I’m ok. Not feeling on fire but when I put my foot down I’ve still got pace – 1.12 for 100m. Todays tough swim round the course was done very easy effort in 65 minutes. So it can’t be that bad. On the bike it’s a similar story. Some days I’m feeling great and others not so good but definitely it’s improving. However whenever I get on the Tri Bars and push I’m feeling good. Most of my sessions since coming here have included a decent spell at Ironman and above effort levels. Running – I’ve felt great. It’s a relative thing though, not sure I’m feeling as good as I did in the good old days but it’s way above what I’ve felt in the run up to Kona. In the gym I felt horribly weak more or less till my last session.

So in conclusion. I’m feeling pretty rested and still have some rest left. I think I’ll have a solid race. With luck a sub 5 hour bike split and an encouraging run. On the run the aim is to run the whole thing and second to get sub 4 hours. With that I think I’ll be a good way towards qualifying at New Zealand.

The last 3 days of last week got me out doing some good long rides. First was with Russell out to Capel and a big loop from there. It was the nicest ride I’ve done here and rolling for a good portion of it. We kept it ticking along getting 140k done at an average of 30km/h.

Saturday Jo and I drove out to Nannup and did an even nicer ride out to Pemberton and back along Sears Road. The picture above is of Jo going over the final (70km/h) decent in to Nannup. That was 176k in just under 7 hours. It was a pretty easy effort level but whatever the effort the legs ache after those hours in the saddle.

Finally Sunday with Russell for a final ride out to Margaret River for more Magic Slice. I certainly felt the previous 4 days in my legs out to Margaret River but kept reminding myself this was the last push before REST REST REST. Some of it was lack of fuel though as I felt a lot better on the way back. I TT’d behind Russell along Mowen road and then on Sues road had a great 40+km/h blast for 15 – 20 minutes. That made me feel good and realise that even if the legs felt trashed they could still crank it. Very encouraging.

To finish…

On that ride we saw a load of Kangaroos in the shade under a tree:

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The Other Land Of Flat Whites

Posted on November 26, 2009 by lord_lordy

FlatWhiteOz.jpgNew Zealand is not he only country that does Flat White coffee. Here is a marvelous example from the cafe with “the best coffee in Margaret River”. It was delicious and certainly did not make me feel I could question this claim. I’ve had it explained to me what makes a flat white but I’m still not sure. I know it’s not quite like a latte and definitely not like a cappuccino, it’s somewhere in between and for most of my moods is better than either.

I am quickly growing very fond of this part of the world. As is Jo since she’s already talking about coming back next year so she can race it and I can give it a go when fully fit. Busselton is so welcoming, everyone so friendly and our hosts Neil and Lorraine could not have made us feel more welcome. This morning Neil took Jo and I on a ride out to Bunkers Bay to his favourite breakfast place. Mum and Lorraine met us there. It was a really nice ride and the breakfast was awesome. We’ve not done breakfast here as we do in the UK because it’s so expensive. This was no different about £15 for a full english breakfast. Now it was good, very good, superb qualify but it was the sort of quality you’d expect from a good restaurant on an evening. Lorraine said that going out for breakfast was a big thing for locals. This explained it but it would be nice to find a cheap and cheerful greasy spoon.

I am starting to feel like I’m getting some form back. Some level of fitness. I reckon I’m executing the plan I had for Kona after Wisconsin but am doing it better. Last week I finally got a good weeks training  in, mainly aerobic and volume based and I’m feeling the benefits of it. I was a little tired Monday and Tuesday and limited myself to swims and gym. I tried a run on Tuesday but after 7 minutes felt so wasted I stopped and walked home. Given how little running I’ve done for 8 months and the quality of my running last week I concluded I’d just not recovered. Yesterday I did the run after a fairly long bike and a swim (more on this later) and I was running well. 67 minutes of running relaxed feeling just how I used to. Knocking the run on the head the previous day was the right decision.

On Sunday, Russell and I headed out on a long adventure ride. Nearly 200km out of Mobile contact with only one place for provisions. We cycled the first 100km with only 3 cars passing us but sods law was that one of those passed us just as a car came by the other way ! These 100km involved only two roads and virtually no change in scenery. It takes a real change in mindset to cope with this sort of riding. I was dropping off the pace, then catching up just to relieve the monotony. Wanting a pee was a welcome relief in more ways than one and it meant we got to take a photo of this Poison Swamp sign with an advert for kayaking. The only other relief on the road to Nannup was coming across a load of Emus including one in the road. It was just like a sheep only faster and more stupid. I like Nannup and the bacon, egg and barbie sauce sarnie was very welcome indeed. The road back was more fun but probably  purely because the sun had come out and we were heading home. I enjoyed the ride in the way you enjoy completing anything that proved a lot harder than you expected. I won’t be rushing to repeat it though.

One ride I have repeated is the Margaret River ride Jo and I did. Russ and I did it on Tuesday. It was tough on Russell as he was feeling shot and I was feeling great. After our coffee stop there’s a great TT section. I couldn’t help myself and blasted for about 20 minutes most of the time over 40km/h. My hope is to do this ride again on Sunday. This will complete another 30+ hour week and then I will rest. I’m not even going to say taper as it’s not really that. I’m aiming to build my aerobic base and then start the race rested. The figures look OK when I stick them in my plan and I’m encourage by Rogers performance at IM Arizona. He did Kona, had far from ideal training between but rested up and got 3rd in his AG, his Kona slot and I believe a PB. You just never know whats the right approach in this game but that shows that he’d not lost all his Kona fitness and that must be the case with me.

So to swimming. Jo and I had chatted about swimming over a beer last week. I said she had to get used to swimming at her target pace and she asked how I would do it. I suggested a session and after Scott confirmed it was a good idea we gave it a go yesterday. We did the following session together using Jo’s repeat times:

20 x 25m on 40s hitting your target pace

Recovery – enough to be ready to hit the next bit

5 x 50m on 1:15 hitting same pace

Recovery

1 x 100m FLAT OUT.

Recovery

5 x 50m on 1:15 hitting same pace

Recovery

20 x 25m on 40s hitting same pace.

This proved a great session. The idea is to be swimming at the sort of speed you would like to hit the 100 on and ultimately swim that pace for a 400 and beyond. It was a fun session and I’ve written a couple of progression sessions for it. It was certainly tiring. For me I got to swim 1.6km at 1:12 pace and Jo managed most at about 1:22 pace. We plan to repeat almost weekly.

I’m feeling reasonably positive about this race now but with that comes a little frustration that my run fitness just won’t be there. Still as long as I perform better than Kona it will be a step forward.

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Busselton

Posted on November 21, 2009 by lord_lordy

BussoJetty.jpgIt was a pretty manic last few days in the UK. Departing rather crept up on me and suddenly I seemed to have lots of things to do. The saturday we left saw Jo and I riding round Richmond Park on our Fixed getting completely soaked every so often and ensuring that we were keen as mustard to get down under. Back at my sisters it was my nephews second birthday and lots of people were there. We had a few drinks and lots of food before our cab arrived in the middle of it to take us to Heathrow. Once through checkin it finally felt totally calm, for the next 24 hours or so we just had to followed instructions… nice.

Quantas – lovely airline but completely crap baggage policy and completely ruthless about it. Cost us just under £300 for our luggage and we packed light. I’m talking 2 pairs cycling shorts for a 4 month trip light. If you’re travelling with a bike I would avoid them at all costs.

So … our journey. About an hours cab to Heathrow. Then a couple of hours wait before a 10 hour flight to Bangkok. I managed about 6 hours sleep on this leg. Hour wait then 9 hour flight to Sydney and another 5 hours sleep. 2 hour wait then 4.5 hour flight to Perth and a further 3 hours sleep. 30 minute ride in to central Perth and some lunch before our final 4 hours bus journey to Busselton – reckon I got 3h55 sleep on that ! Despite all that I slept right through the night our first night in Busselton and have not had any signs of Jetlag whatsoever.

Busselton is a lovely place, very relaxing. We’ve fallen on our feet staying with some friends of my mums. It’s the perfect location for pool, gym, sea, town centre and the race ! Apparently it has a population of about 25,000 and despite this on Tuesday morning at 5:30am they must have had 50 people for a group ride. I’d been warned about the speed of the front few riders when the pack split up and managed to jump on. The team TT’d for an hour with no mercy covering over 40km. I stuck in for about 20 minutes before deciding that this really wasn’t appropriate for my training and sat up, Russ joined me and we soon hooked up with 3 over riders and had a nice civilised but steady back. Lots of people head for coffee after and I made most welcome.

Thursday morning despite the rain there were still about 30 people for the ride and again followed by a coffee. The club is really well set up and a cinch to feel welcome in. On THursday night Jo and I went out for a drink. Get this AUD$18 for two pints !! Thats over £5 per pint. Anyway – we bumped into some people from the Tri Club and they invited us to join them. Really fun. So nice to feel so at home so quickly in a location.

Today we joined the club at 5:30am and headed out with them for the first hour before Jo and I continued on and did a lovely 5 hour ride round through a place called Margaret River (any wine buffs will probably have heard of ). Beautiful rolling countryside. Great for TTing along which Jo and I could not resist. At least today we didn’t get dive bombed by magpies like I did half a dozen times yesterday.

Getting back in to the rhythm of training very quickly here…. it’s so easy. Re-affirms that a big factor in getting good training in is getting your circumstances just right. Here we have a leisure centre close by with two 25m pools. The outside one has just got warm enough and seems little used so I’ve had a lane to myself everytime I’ve been. Then mere minutes away is this great gym. Get this… it’s unstaffed. First person in at the start of the day opens and last person locks up ! I wondered whether this would be possible in the UK or would our nanny state has “health and safety” issues about it. All along the coast here is a cycle / running track which provides a great run route.

So… last Wednesday I decide to try for a 2 hour run. For me this is a hugely important run so all other training that day is secondary. Thats pretty unheard of for me in the past few years. I head off and after about 45 minutes start to feel pretty good and am running well. At the point I need to turnaround for a 2 hour run I decide to keep going. I’m enjoying it and feeling slightly perplexed as to why I am running so well having done so little. I decided to push on for 2.5 hours which was my target for next week thinking if I get it done this week I could taper !! So … at the 2 hour mark I’m actually pushing the pace. Ended up with 2h40, wish I’d worn the GPS to know how far but guess (via gmaps) as about 19 miles. Really pleased with that. I tell you this run knocked me for six. I was utterly exhausted in the evening falling asleep on the settee by about 7pm! What a great feeling.

Towards the end of this run I was getting very thirsty (I rarely carry water on my runs) and headed in to some public loos Turn on the tap with my hand under it and out runs a spider – I jumped a mile. Glad I did as it was a “White Tail Spider” – I’d seen a documentary on these and though not deadly it is very painful and many people have a terrible reaction which results in loads of skin literally rotting. At least I now feel I’m truly in Oz … a closed encounter with a spider and I’ve seen Kangaroos and Emus.

Oh… the picture is Busselton Jetty. Unfortunately it’s having major renovation work done so my mum won’t be able to follow us along it on the swim.

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Frustration

Posted on November 11, 2009 by lord_lordy

Frustration09.jpgI am back in training but it’s very frustrating. Is there something about this time of year or it being post Hawaii but my motivation has been very up and down. For instance, right now it looks lovely outside and I’m dithering about getting out on my bike. I’m writing this instead. I can’t decide whether I’m just being a wuss and should get on with it or whether it’s that I’m drained and should rest. Part of me knows that it’s because I’ve not been eating well.

My cold slowly started to clear up last week in time to head to Taunton to spend some time with Jo. I arrived and headed out for a run in the lanes around there. I took a wrong turn and ended up with a slightly longer run than I’d planned but it was great. I was running along thinking this is bizarre I’m suddenly running at a decent pace, feeling good and no pain. I did 12 miles in 1h40. I was chuffed. Great start.

I’d decided that I would leave at least two days between runs to give it a chance to recover. So the weekend I got out and did a couple of rides of just over 80 miles. Good fun. Monday saw me out for just over 50 miles and a short swim. Again not too bad. But yesterday felt just not in to it and took a rest day. now today feel pretty much the same.

As for the foot. There have been aches and pains as before built up over the past two days. Didn’t feel them at all the day of the run or the day after but now it just doesn’t feel quite right. Nothing dramatic just not the sort of ache where I feel it’s to be expected, the sort of ache that indicates the body adapting. I’ll admit it’s playing on my mind and I’m starting to imagine what I’d do if I can’t get back to decent run training. At the moment I feel I’ll give it till Ironman Lanzarote and if I’m not running properly there then it will be time for a year out from competition to just completely remove the pressure to run.

As for Busselton my ambitions and goals there are changing. I’ve not felt great on the bike since my illness and my swimming has been minimal. For now I will keep my eye on New Zealand and start my build for that and just have Busselton as something that happens along the way. You never know taking this relaxed attitude could be the key to a pleasing performance.

By the way – the photo is of a lovely road on the Blackdown Hills. Taken at about 3pm on Monday just as the mist was finally clearing for the first time that day.

Here’s another one:

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Not Back In Training

Posted on November 3, 2009 by lord_lordy

NotBackInTrainingLast weeks start to training was a great big false start. This pretty consistently happens to me following a big race. I take a couple of weeks off then as soon as I get back to training I get struck down with an illness that puts me out of action for a week. I really thought I’d nipped it in the bud last Tuesday when I skipped the swim and then didn’t ride on Wednesday. However by Friday I felt really terrible and only headed to swimming because I was meeting someone after. I managed 50m of the main set before realising I shouldn’t be there. I got out. Unfortunately I was looking after my nephews that day with my mum and I now really feel for parents that have to look after kids when they really just want to curl up in bed. When Janes friend Katie arrived at 8pm to help out I just went straight to bed. Hot and cold all night … horrible. Unfortunately (again) I was leading a club ride the next morning so I got up and went to the meet point hoping to find a willing and able volunteer to take the ride. There was none so I rode slowly out to Box Hill in the drizzle, got the train back and immediately coiled up on the sofa in the film room.

Very frustrating. I spoke to our swim coach about it and asked if he knew of any research on it as it seemed pretty consistent with me. He said some research had been done on swim squads post major competitions and it found that it was not only the swimmers that came down with illnesses but also the coaching staff !

I’m desperately trying to keep level headed about this with Busselton so close. The best thing I can do right now is recover from this illness rather than try to train however it’s disheartening to feel fitness is slipping away. This is where ATL, CTL and TSB charts do me no favours. By the time I swim on Friday I’ll have gone nearly 2 weeks without swimming. I was going so well in the pool last week I just hope I feel somewhere close to that. I got my new inserts for my runners but as yet have not been able to get out and run them. As for cycling. I went out today it some HORRIBLE weather with Rachel – lucky that we agreed to meet as neither of us would have ridden otherwise. It did me good as I felt pretty good after it so am happy to get back in to the cycling. I think that will be a bit of a focus for the next few weeks as I’m pretty sure my happiness with my result at Busselton will be largely based on my bike split.

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Back In Training

Posted on October 27, 2009 by lord_lordy

BackInTrainingIt’s been a rather stressful day or so. We’re flying out to Busselton, then Christchurch and then home on Quantas. We knew that their luggage allowance was pretty tight (23 kg) but on closer inspection we find they have maximum dimensions for bike boxes which my Scicon Box doesn’t meet ( I certainly didn’t see these at the time of booking). This resulted in us looking in to shipping (too expensive or no guarantees of getting there in time). Seems our options now are to just turn up and hope they accept it (they probably will ) or use a bike bag. I feel better having decided this though feel very frustrated when i find that if I’d booked the same flight through BA since they code share I could be on exactly the same plane but with much more generous allowances. On our pretty tight budget all these extra costs get to me a little.

Enough of the moaning … I’m still living the dream so shouldn’t complain.

Training for Busselton officially started yesterday and sods law, as I write this, I feel like I’m coming down with a cold. Probably going to knock this evenings squad swim on the head in favour of a good nights sleep.

I thought I’d share with you how I’ve felt in each of the disciplines have had at least one session in each since my two weeks off.

SWIM

I’m feeling great in the pool. On Friday I managed to do a couple of 100s in 1:12 and felt strong. I wondered whether this was just freshness after a rest and it wouldn’t last. Well, thats not the case. Yesterday morning I was easily cruising 100s coming in on 1:17. I was comfortably repeating off 1:25 and even managed a couple going off 1:20. Seems I’ve not really lost anything. Admittedly swimming is the one that I never completely stopped as I managed some swims in Kona before we left. This is very encouraging for Busselton and seems to put me in the position of only needing to maintain my swimming rather than try and push it on.

BIKE

I rode on Sunday and felt really great. I’d prepared myself for the usual Box Hill ride with Gabriel i.e. fast from the outset. However, Gabriel wasn’t in his usual shape and I was feeling pretty strong so I had the pleasure of him hanging on my wheel. Again I wondered whether this was just freshness after a rest and wouldn’t last. Well, I think it was the case. Was out riding today with John and had moments of feeling strong but a lot of the time felt pretty wasted and at one point was close to bonking… luckily it was on Box Hill so got myself a nice piece of Bakewell Tart and as was right as rain. For Busselton I really want to push my riding on. I’m going to just force myself out this week and get some miles in.

RUN

I’ve run twice so far. Each time to swimming. Very pleased that both times I resisted the urge to run back as well. I felt ok, not great, running on Friday but on Monday I felt great and ran about 6 minutes quicker and close to the times I used to run before swimming. It did mean I got to the pool rather early. 5:40am for a 6am session. Luckily the coach was there early so I ended up with a 1.9km warm up. Aim for the run is to slowly build it. I going to approach the run build as if Busselton wasn’t happening and then insert a taper 1 week to 10 days out. I don’t want the pressure of trying to get ready for Busselton.

GYM

Hit the gym yesterday. Boy was I weak. I test myself each time by seeing how many chins and dips I can do. At the end of our time in Club La Santa I was on 21 and 20. Yesterday I was on 9 and 6. I think you’ve had a moment to be impressed (perhaps not) … my test is how many I can do across three attempts. So my dips yesterday were pathetic. This loss of strength both makes sense and puzzles me. It makes sense in that I’m over 40 (just) and you hear a lot about  maintaining strength above 40. What is puzzling is how strong I feel in the pool. I’d felt a lot of my swim improvement was down to gym work. It still might be but seems odd I can feel weak in the gym but not in the pool. The picture today is really just a sign of my determination to get this strength back.

I’ve been thinking a fair bit about Busselton following my “run” performance at Kona. Here’re my ambitious time targets:

Swim: 52 minutes (hopefully get in the front age group pack)

Bike: 4:45 (this is ambitious and requires my riding to start feeling a lot better than today!)

Run: Sub 4 hr

That would nicely bring me in well under 10 hours.

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Non Stop In London

Posted on October 23, 2009 by lord_lordy

NonStopInLondon.jpgIt’s been a hectic few days … no not because of setting those two things up.

Firstly all the travel. Overnight to San Francisco, a day there wandering around and catching up with an old friend before an overnight flight (first class this time) back to London. Since  being here I’ve had a lot to do. Luckily my plans to get back to formal training don’t start till this Monday.

On Wednesday I saw my physio. She was pleased with how my toe had handled the race and felt there wasn’t much more she could do. In the evening I coached my first full squad session. Really really enjoyed it.

Thursday I saw the podiatrist. He did some gait analysis and should have me some inserts to try next week. He felt I was not only week in that big toe but also it was tight, combined with this there is tightness in that calf and the achilles of that foot. He can see me favouring the toes of that foot rather than the big toe and without that being corrected I will just continue to get these niggles as I increase my run volume. I walked in in my Vibram FiveFingers shoes and we chatted about them. He was quite open minded about them and said there were two schools though he didn’t seem to squarely fit in either. He certainly didn’t say they were going to do me any harm but the inserts that will help force me to use the big toe can’t be used in them.

I’ve also taken on two new athletes to coach which provides an initial overhead to set up but it’s quite exciting work to do. Jo similarly has got some new athletes and we’ve other potential ones. So we’re getting rather excited about this and are putting a little extra work in to our coaching website before we start to try and publicise it. If any of you are interested: http://www.everydaytraining.org.uk. As part of this I dug out links to a series of two very interesting articles on healthy diet which I though some of you may be interested in. They may at least make you question the advice thats touted by the media an government:

    http://www.scribd.com/doc/3896244/The-Myth-of-Healthy-Eating-p1

    http://www.scribd.com/doc/3896264/The-Myth-of-Healthy-Eating-p2

Today I got back into some form of training this is the start of easing back in over the weekend before hitting full training weeks from Monday. I ran to the pool and it felt pretty good. 45 minutes. The foot ached quite a lot in the pool so the daft thoughts of running back as well were sensibly knocked on the head. I felt good in the pool and even managed a couple of 100s on 1:12 ! Our coach said to me at the end that he can tell if I’m in the pool just by listening because my stroke is like a metronome. He said this was a good thing for a distance swimmer. I took it as a compliment.

The weather’s been gorgeous today which probably guarantees bad weather tomorrow when i’m heading out on the bike.

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Chilling In Waikiki

Posted on October 16, 2009 by lord_lordy

ChillingInWaikikiHere’s Jo wandering along beach near Kailua on the Windward side of Oahu. We’ve been doing very little other than relaxing. We’ve used the local buses to do a complete tour of the Island.

I’ve been so tired. I’ve slept the best part of 10 hours every night I’ve been here and I reckon if you include the snoozing I’ve been doing virtually anytime I lay down I think I’ve slept more than half the time we’ve been here.

It’s been nice relaxing about diet. We’ve had beers, chips, desserts even had a paleo feast at a buffet dinner that was serving the most delicious Prime Rib. Our friend Russell has been commenting on his carbfest on his blog. Well, take a look at this baby:

ChillingInWaikiki1

I did my best but even with a little help fro Jo this is what was left at the end:

ChillingInWaikiki2

It really doesn’t look like I managed much of it. I concluded the only person I knew that could finish this was Russell. Jo wondered whether ‘The Ginger Bullett” would have. Perhaps sometime soon we’ll have them both in Kona at the same time and we can find out.

Much of the time spent just relaxing doing nothing I’ve been thinking about the coming season. I’m very encouraged. Scott, as usual, hit home with the truth:

“…it certainly looks like you’ve got some work to do to get that foot right.  Its been 8 months now – that’s a long time.”

I’d never quite thought of it like that since I’ve been trying to get back in to running for a while but it has been 8 months. It’s made me rethink hopes for Bussellton. I think if I’m in shape to run 4 hours I should be happy. I do wonder how gutted I’ll be if I come in off the bike well under 6 hours but in no shape to have a shot at sub 9 hours. If that happens I guess it’ll just mean I’ll have to go back and race again especially as I’ve missed the boat to enter the fast European races next summer.

Got a couple more days in Hawaii before heading back to the cold British weather and getting back into some training. I’ll ended with an Hawaiian sunset.

WaikikiSunset2

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Kona 09 Some Final Thoughts

Posted on October 13, 2009 by lord_lordy

KonaFinalThoughts09.jpgFollowing the buzz of race day the day or two after in Kona has a very low vibe. Jo and I are just chilling out before we catch our flight to Waikiki for a few days holiday. It’s going to be so nice to just hang out, have beer, not train. You should read Jo’s race report. Her description of race morning is spot on.

Before my break from blogging and training an entry on random thoughts about the race and such.

Firstly podiuming at Kona is now my No. 1 goal. I think I’ve stated this before but in my heart I’ve viewed it as a dream goal. Saturday was a real change for me. I now know I have enough talent to achieve that. I committed pretty fully in the run up to this race and pleasingly I didn’t fall short. The competition on Saturday was beatable and that is heartening to say. I’ve thought about what it would take but realised I no longer need to state it like that since an average run for me on Saturday would have been enough. So instead what are my goal splits next year that will put me in with a shout for podiuming:

1.Swim – sub 55 minutes. I need to continue solid swimming and draft better in the swim. More work on my outright speed would help to allow me to get the really fast feet early on (I was in amongst them briefly) and have the speed to cover surges. Perhaps I’ll get to train in the pool with Rachel again – I think that would help.

2.Bike – I can get quicker. Low 5 hours possibly under 5 on this course on a good day. Definitely need more focussed specific sessions. Longer intervals at race intensity and regular FAST long rides. This touches on me moving out of my training comfort zone. The leg cramping towards the end of the ride was a problem and I feel riding hard for long intervals will help.

3.Transitions – reckon these will be 3 minutes and 2:30 tops if I’m racing

4.Run – the big one. I need to be able to run again. I need to train on less volume and imagine taking a similar approach to Roger in making sure all my running is decent quality. I think running 3:20 off the bike is a reasonable target for next year.

So what does that give me ? 9h25. There we have it !

In stark contrast to that is the fact that I may never qualify for this race. It’s contributing to my feeling of melancholy. I’ve no idea whether my foot will ever allow me to run a marathon. When I started running towards the end it was really aching and post race yesterday it was pretty bad. I think the cramp early on may have done me a favour.

The race. Boy oh boy is it awesome. I absolutely want to come back. NO DOUBT. It is  truly unbelievable. I heard someone yesterday say Lanzarote is harder. It was her husband, not her, that had raced. I don’t really think it’s harder than this. The terrain is but the environment here is brutal. The winds can be unrelenting and the typical headwind for the last 30 miles really catches people out. It’s taken 4 attempts for me to pace it well and be riding relatively strong at the end. The heat. It cuts you down. You may not even feel it’s hot but it drains you. Then there’s the competition – everyone is so fast the race is just different. More people around, more reason to push, more chance you just give a little more than you have to give.

The support is great. The supporters seem so knowledgeable. “remember to eat” or knowing you’re close to pace for a target time.

I was made to smile many times on Saturday during the run.

“ You guys are the best athletes in The World” just changed my perspective during the first few 100m of my walk. Quickly followed by “you’ve only got 15% of the course to do” !!

This race is also so fun because the athletes come out earlier for it. So if you have friends doing it there’s lots of time to hang out. Yes it takes an effort to steer the conversation away from the race, tapering etc… but that just adds to the electric buzz. So all those friends and readers out there trying to qualify – good luck. If I can help in anyway just ask. I look forward to hanging out with many of you in Kailua-Kona in 2010.

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